50 SYLVIADJE. 



top, and again drops to shelter, grating its harsh alarm-note. 

 The swallows skiin past, uttering their merry twitter, and 

 instantly, in an excess of bird indignation for its silence being 

 trespassed upon, the sedge warbler mounts to the highest 

 reed, and pours forth the swallow's melody, nearly as well 

 denned as the original. 



Then comes a medley as each intruder interrupts him, the 

 notes of the linnet and chaffinch, and the twitter of the spar- 

 row. But now the sun glances out brightly, and the lark 



" Higher still, and higher, from the earth now springeth ; 

 Like a cloud of fire, the blue deep he wingeth, 

 And, singing still, doth soar, and soaring, ever singeth." 



But the sedge warbler is silent, and, unable to imitate per- 

 fection, the entire colony make common cause, and express 

 their disapprobation by a succession of harsh, grating notes. 



However varied the sedge warbler's powers of imitation, its 

 own natural song is possessed of considerable merit, and from 

 its habit of singing after dusk and during midnight, it is well 

 known by the names of " night-singer" and u Irish nightin- 

 gale." 



From the impervious situation in which it nidifies, the nest 

 is very difficult of being discovered. However, on several 

 occasions we have obtained it, well concealed amongst sedges, 

 along the Tolka. 



Habitat Western Europe. , 



SPECIES 49 THE GRASSHOPPER WARBLER, 



Salicaria locustella. Selby. 

 Bee Jin locustelle. Temm. 



THIS species, which is believed to be a regular summer visi- 

 tant to our island, and of which some few specimens have been 

 obtained in various localities, appears to be of excessive rarity 

 along the eastern portion of the island, so much so that it 

 has never passed under my own observation, or that of Mr. 

 Richard Glennon, who has had some forty years' experience 

 of the distribution of our native and migratory species. Shy 

 and retired in habits, as are many of the birds comprised in 

 this family, the grasshopper warbler is the most so. Possessing 

 a peculiar call-note, which bears a close resemblance to the 

 note of the mole cricket (Grilla talpa), it hides itself so com- 

 pletely from view, that an opportunity is rarely presented of 

 observing it ; never leaving the impenetrable shelter it has 

 chosen, neither will any inducement cause it to take wing, 



